I'm Giving Away Gardening Prize Packages!

Close your eyes, hold out your hands and get ready for some groovy
gardening gifts. Thanks to some very generous contributors, we're giving
away well over $200 worth of gardening prize packages to four lucky
readers! From a vertical gardening prize package to a collection of
gardening books, we're giving away something for everyone! Just leave a
comment to enter.

The Gardener's Bookshelf Prize Package

This
is a quintessential collection of books for new and experienced
gardeners alike and contains everything you need to know about
completing just about any gardening task.

Helen Yoest's Gardening with Confidence
will help you do exactly what the title promises, giving gardeners permission to be
creative in their own gardens without fear of being judged by others.
She doesn't talk down to you when dispensing her invaluable advice, but
rather gets you excited about whipping your own landscape into check
with projects like planning a garden, planting containers and adding
interest with fragrance, water features and structures.

Once Helen's book gets you excited about taking on all of those gardening projects, Katie Elzer-Peters tells you precisely how to do everything in easy steps with her book the Beginner's Illustrated Guide to Gardening. Katie has been my editor and good friend for a few years now, but I was honestly blown away when I saw her book for the first time. She explains every gardening task with so much detail, yet in a simple and easy to follow way. The photo illustrations outline all of the steps visually, making every project not only easy, but a whole lot of fun.

Maybe you're just making the switch to gardening organically. Well, I can't think of a better guide than Joe Lamp'l, host of the PBS show Growing a Greener World. What I love about Joe is that while other 'green' gurus make the green lifestyle expensive and complicated, Joe manages to make sustainable practices look so affordable, simple and sensible that you'll wonder how you got along without him. Joe has two books in this prize package: Over the Fence with Joe Gardener and the Green Gardener's Guide.

DIY Succulent Garden Prize Package

This prize package contains everything you need to make your own miniature succulent garden, but let's start with the succulents themselves. Candice Suter of Sweetstuff's Sassy Succulents will be providing a healthy helping of succulent cuttings to get you started. Oh, and if her blog's endless supply of horticultural eye candy doesn't get you excited about succulents, nothing will.

Next you'll need a container, and this wood stamped cement planter from Nativecast is a perfect complement to the often muted hues of succulents. I used a larger version of this planter (pictured above) for a container combination in my upcoming book, and I think it turned out nicely.

Every good recipe starts with good ingredients, the best cars run on premium fuel and the finest artists use quality paints. So instead of planting your precious succulents in regular potting soil, use this Cactus Potting Mix from Black Gold and never watch another aloe rot away in soggy soil.

Finally, how about a handcrafted top notch soil scoop from Garden Tool Co.? My balcony is a mess right now, all thanks to my standard issue garden trowel that tends to spill potting soil all over the place. Shawna Coronado had this problem too, so when DeWit tools invited her to their blacksmithing workshop, she actually took a plane to the Netherlands and designed a new one along with Derk DeWit. It's U shaped to keep soil from falling over the sides, has a sharp bottom edge for removing old rootballs and comes equipped with a sharp hook to the side that tears open soil bags with ease.

Vertical Veggie Garden Prize Package

Who wouldn't want to grow their own veggies in a limited space? Well, this package has just what you need... except pots, since they're cheaper to buy than they are to ship. What the heck. I WILL include a bag of Black Gold Potting Mix. and a bag of Annie Haven's'Moo Poo Tea' to keep your vegetables nice and healthy from sprout to salad. Seedlings get a nice boost with a little soak in compost tea!

To get you inspired, have a copy of Vertical Vegetable Gardening
by Chris McLaughlin. It promises to be a real treat for those of us
with balconies or shady gardens, or just those who want vegetables right
outside the kitchen door. Chris is the fastest writer I know and her
writing is always to the point and approachable. Other than that, I'd
like to add that she's a wonderful friend.

Okay, enough of the sappy stuff and on to the veggie stuff. Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds was kind enough to provide a $10 gift card for seeds
as a part of this prize package. I have their winter annuals, greens
and heirloom squash growing in the garden as we speak and I'd love to
introduce more people to their heirloom vegetables rescued from
obscurity (and possibly extinction) from all around the world.

I'm also giving away some of Sierra Rose Creations'EZ Mount Plant Pot Hangers
to get you started growing up on your own. These things are a
lifesaver. Just get a pole from the hardware store, slip on the plant
pot hangers and watch your vertical garden grow. While I can't include
their redwood stand in the giveaway, you might consider getting one. I
now grow fifteen plants in a space that would normally only allow for
four, which is a pretty big deal since my apartment is filled with
plants.

Handmade Gift Prize Package

This
might be the smallest prize package of the four, but you'll learn how
to make your own creative DIY projects and have a tasty snack to fuel
your creativity!

Stephanie Rose'sGarden Therapy Handmade Gifts e-book walks you through DIY beauty products, decor projects and even living art! I'm a huge fan of Stephanie's Garden Therapy blog for its creative and classy craft projects, which are often so popular that I see them on Pinterest before I even visit her blog on my own.

The second part of this prize package is a homemade gift from Carolyn Binder to you. She's wishing you a merry Christmas with a pound of her sweet and salty candied pecans, and having tried her food before myself, I guarantee that her pecans will make your holidays very merry indeed. All in all, this is a very big prize in a small package.

Here's How to WinLeave a comment on this post telling me which of these presents you'd like to win the most. You can enter once a day from now until next Wednesday December 19th at 10 pm Eastern Time, meaning you have seven opportunities to enter! I will draw the winning names from a hat on Thursday December 20th and announce the winners here at The Rainforest Garden.

Since some prizes will be sent by me and others will be sent by the kind contributors, I can't make any promises that you'll receive everything by Christmas day... but we'll all do our best!

Unfortunately, this is only open to US residents.

As stated earlier, many of these gifts were provided at no cost to me so that they can be given away at no cost to you. Thanks generous donors!

(Oh, and how could I forget? I'm giving away THREE more things: Carolyn Binder is giving away three of my best illustrations over at her blog Cowlick Cottage Farm and all you have to do is leave a comment over there to win my illustrations and lots of other great prizes.)

105 comments:

What a wonderful giveaway - sometimes I wish I lived back in the US (I presume it is only open to US residents? that vertical vegetable gardening book looks very interesting - I will have to see if it is available here.

But if you lived in the US we wouldn't get to see your lovely garden! Let's make a deal: if I draw your name I'll at least try to get you the electronic edition of that vertical vegetable gardening book.

Fantastic giveaway you have going on here, Steve. The pot hanger would be cool to have on our shaded porches for the plants we need to hide from the summer sun, but then again, there's no such thing as a bad heirloom seed. Great selection of books too, but I'm really lusting after my friend and neighbor Helen's book 'Gardening With Confidence'. Thanks to all the great contributors, and good luck to everyone.

This is awesome! All the prizes are great. I especially love the succulent garden and the EZ mount plant pot hangers. What a great space saver for those of us with small spaces who love plants! I live in PA and once the cold weather comes, I bring in many of my outdoor plants and my house looks like a jungle! Lol.

Your giveaways all look awesome! Seems everyone loves the Vertical Veggie Garden Prize Package and I am no exception. I think it is exceptional however I would be just as happy to win the DIY Succulent Garden Prize Package. Everytime we go to visit my boyfriend's brother in New Mexico I am so envious of all his cacti. I think growing succulents would be most interesting as well. Good luck everyone!!

i would love to win any of these wonderful gardening tools but especially like the soil scoop and The Green Gardeners Guide. my husband and i love to dig in the dirt and are adament about organic gardening.

"Soil Scoop" will be helpful!...I'm thinking of my future terrace edible garden on the mountain slop behind the house as soon as I clean up the fallen trees (at least 4 dozens of) after uninvited and unpleasant visit from hurricane Sandy.

I love to garden Have never won anything that has to do with gardening My favorite to do is tomatoes. My husband and I plant enuf that we can give away plenty.............I love flowers to My favorite is day lillys........Have several of them planted......dig and muliply some evey year............would love to win something for gardening.........................supersis1944@ahoo.com

I'm most interested in the DIY succulent package. The potting tool looks really useful, and I do have some aloe in regular potting soil that need to be replanted before they tip their container completely over. Again. This would be a most timely prize were I to win.

What a wonderful giveaway to go with a wonderful site. Just discovered you yesterday and am already gathering bits to make the tillandsia wreath. I would love to win the Over the Fence book or the Handmade Therapy book

Dude, I want to win it ALL, but Carolyn's pecans are the ones calling my name. I already bought Stevie's book of handmade crafts and let me tell you, if anyone's on the fence about buying - it's great! The chocolate lip balm recipe is super.

Steve, I would love to win the Handmade Gift package. Stevie at Garden Therapy is one of my favorite pinners, and I love the blog! I've heard Carolyn's pecans are wonderful, too...would be thrilled to get those in the mail!

I realized yesterday that the EZ Mount Plant Pot Hangers were part of the vertical veggie gardening prize package, so DIY Succulent Prize Package is my first choice, then the Vertical Veggie Gardening Prize Package.

Hi Steve! I would love to win the Vertical Veggie Garden Prize Package. The EZ Mount Plant Pot Hangers. That would be great for all my Epi babies that I'm starting. I always wanted to try some of Annie Heaven's Moo Poo tea. I've never used black gold soils. I'm always looking for better soils and mixes. The Baker Creek Heirloom seeds is another thing I'd like to have too. The entire package looks wonderful! I love Chris McLaughlin's books too! She's a wonderful writer!

I had forgotten we could enter more than once. Whoops. Still, it only takes one time to win, right? I'm still interested in the succulents. After that it would be the vertical gardening. Lots of mature trees here, so not a lot of sunny spots. Thanks for hosting this giveaway, and thanks to those whose donations make it possible.

I had forgotten we could enter more than once. Whoops. Still, it only takes one time to win, right? I'm still interested in the succulents. After that it would be the vertical gardening. Lots of mature trees here, so not a lot of sunny spots. Thanks for hosting this giveaway, and thanks to those whose donations make it possible.